Retail Product Container Merging to Optimize Storage Capacity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing product distribution systems inefficiently pack products into storage containers, leading to underutilized space and increased use of delivery vehicles, thereby increasing operational costs for distribution centers and transport services.
Innovation Solution
An automated storage and retrieval system that analyzes business rules to identify eligible containers for merging at a picking station, keeping them until products are transferred between containers to optimize space utilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If products are placed into storage containers based on intended destination without optimization, then the packing process is simple and fast, but the interior space of storage containers is not optimally used resulting in underutilized capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of container contents and destination requirements before final packing decisions. The control circuit pre-identifies which products should be merged between containers by analyzing business rules, container capacity, and delivery destinations in advance, allowing optimized packing arrangements to be prepared before containers are sealed and dispatched.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual packing optimization with an automated control circuit that uses electronic data processing and algorithmic analysis. The system substitutes human decision-making with automated rule-based analysis of container contents, product dimensions, weight, and delivery requirements to determine optimal merging opportunities.
2Quantity of substance
If more storage containers are used to ensure adequate space for all products, then all products can be stored, but the number of delivery vehicles required increases leading to higher operational costs
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges products from multiple partially-filled containers into fewer containers by identifying compatible products that can be consolidated. The control circuit analyzes which containers have complementary product mixes and combines their contents to create fully-utilized containers, thereby reducing the total number of containers and delivery vehicles needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the composition and distribution parameters of container contents dynamically. By adjusting which products are placed together in containers based on real-time analysis of capacity, weight limits, product compatibility, and delivery destinations, the system optimizes container utilization to minimize the total quantity of containers required.
3Ease of operation
If products are distributed across many containers to simplify individual container management, then container handling is easier, but the overall storage efficiency decreases requiring more containers
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables containers to effectively 'self-optimize' through automated control circuit analysis. The control circuit independently evaluates container contents, product characteristics, and delivery requirements to determine merging opportunities, allowing the packing system to automatically improve efficiency without requiring manual intervention or complex human coordination.
Data Source
AI summary
Automated storage and retrieval systems for managing storage of inventory at a retail facility include a storage structure with storage locations configured to store containers that contain retail products, and a conveying system that conveys the containers between the storage locations and a product picking station. A processor-based control circuit analyzes one or more business rules governing product merging between the containers being conveyed toward the picking station by the conveying system to identify two containers that are eligible for the product merging therebetween. When the control circuit detects that the two containers identified as product merging eligible arrived at the picking station, these two containers are kept by the conveying system at the picking station until all of the products are removed from a first one of these two containers and merged together with the products stored in a second one of these two containers.